Vice president in South Africa for SADC summit

Johannesburg – Angola’s Vice-President Bornito de Sousa arrived Sunday in Johannesburg, South Africa, to attend the extraordinary summit of Southern African Development Community (SADC) in solidarity with the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).

Bornito de Sousa is taking part in 25 – 26 meeting in Pretoria, on behalf of the Angolan Head of State, JoAPound o Lourenco.

The event is expected to adopt a SADC regional strategy and a declaration which will, among others issues, establish mechanisms to engage actors and partners, including Morocco, in observation of the spirit of the decisions of the African Union and the United Nations to speed up the resolution of Western Sahara issue.

The meeting also aims to support the right of SADR to self-determination, based on the principle of decolonisation, multilateralism and international legality, through a referendum.

Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is a partially recognised international state claiming sovereignty over the entire territory of Western Sahara.

Although it is in a dispute between the self-proclaimed Saharawi Republic and Morocco, Western Sahara territory is until now administered by Spain, in the light of the international law. The territory is on the Non-Self-Governing Territories list of the United Nations.

The territory was proclaimed by the Polisario Front on February 27, 1976, and controls about 25 percent of the territory.

Morocco controls and manages the called southern provinces, but the world does not recognise the occupation of Western Sahara territory by Morocco.